I
was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, in 1950, and educated
at Hitchin Boys’ Grammar
School, where my greatest inspiration came from our wonderful
music master, Peter Cooper, and the woodwind teacher John
Myatt
(click on ‘Bassoon’ for more about John). The
family then moved to Cambridge, and I spent a year at Cambridgeshire
College of Arts and Technology (since renamed Anglia Polytechnic
University), on a rather vague but fun ‘post-A-level’ course
with another inspirational teacher, a young harpsichordist
named Christopher Hogwood – now a renowned conductor
and still a friend.

From the ‘Tech’ I got a scholarship to Trinity
College, Cambridge, to read Music (following in my brother
Tony’s footsteps), graduating in 1972 with a double
First (BA Hons.). Feeling that I wanted more academic study,
but not too much, I went to Birmingham University for a year – a
very jolly experience – and gained an MA for a thesis
on the late works of Richard Strauss. I could have stayed
on and done a PhD, but that was enough for me.

Having already done some freelance TV work for my half-brother
Humphrey Burton (nepotism!), I picked up enough work to keep
me going for a year or two, as researcher, score-reader,
fixer of artists, arranger and music copyist, mostly for
ITV companies including London Weekend, Yorkshire TV, and
Southern Television in Southampton. I had some memorable
experiences working on filmed concerts in Ely Cathedral and
Vienna conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Mahler, Beethoven
and Brahms symphonies) for the German film company Unitel. ‘Lenny’ was
an amazing and infuriating man – another great inspiration:
his influence lives on (look at the Leonard
Bernstein website).

I have been lucky, and privileged, to work with so many
inspirational figures: another was Dave Heather at Southern
Television, one of the great TV directors for classical music
and opera, now sadly undervalued. Dave employed me on his ‘Music
in Camera’ series for several years, and also provided
a link to my next big break, a ‘summer job’ in
1975 at Glyndebourne
Festival Opera
in Sussex. As Pit Manager and Assistant Librarian, I was
responsible for setting out chairs and music stands, moving
instruments, marking up orchestral parts to the conductors’ requirements
and putting them on the stands, and handing out scores to
singers, plus all sorts of odd jobs that came along, including
copying music and text, tuning harpsichords, and booking
piano tuners. As I took on more responsibility, I was eventually
promoted to Senior Librarian; but as I was chiefly employed
during the summer Festival season, I was still able to freelance
on TV programmes in the winter, and wear two hats at once
when Southern TV did their annual relay of one or two Glyndebourne
operas each season. These were golden years, both for Glyndebourne
and for me, with a wonderful roll-call of great singers,
conductors and directors in classic productions, all in glorious
surroundings.

Despite feeling very much at home in East Sussex, and being
given the prestigious Jani Strasser Award (for Glyndebourne
music staff), after ten years I felt that I had outgrown
my ‘summer job’; in 1984 I moved on, to become
Senior Music Librarian at English
National Opera – a similar post but in a much bigger organisation,
with the added burden of hand-copying English translations
into scores and getting them printed, with several hundred ‘customers’ impatiently
waiting for their scores! I also had responsibility for a
big budget, covering music hire and royalties, all of which
had to be negotiated with publishers and copyright holders.

For several years in the 1980s and 90s, I taught two evenings
a week at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London,
specialising in 20th-century music history. I also ran weekend
courses on ‘Score-reading for TV Production Staff’ for
HTV, Yorkshire Television and TVS. (How on earth did I have
the time?)

I stuck at ENO for 16 years, working incredibly hard and
generally having a lot of fun (and helped by a succession
of wonderful assistants and understanding music staff); but
the company had its ups and downs, and eventually I felt
that I had outgrown this job too. In search of something
quieter but more focused, once again I was rescued by a timely
vacancy, this time in the Surtitling Department at The
Royal Opera House – where,
since the notorious rebuilding of the Opera House in the
late 1990s, it was decided that the Surtitle Department needed
to be increased from one person (Judi Palmer, now my boss)
to two.

So since August 2000 I have been a full-time Surtitler,
building on freelance experience which goes back to the days
of Southern TV, when I helped to cue subtitles on their opera
broadcasts. I continue to pursue other freelance activities,
as you will see elsewhere on this site.

Having lived in Sussex in my Glyndebourne days, buying my
first house in Eastbourne in 1981, I found a flat in Blackheath
when I came to London to work at ENO in 1984. After seven
years in the flat, I moved a couple of streets away to my
present house, a small rectangular box of great architectural
interest (a Span house, built in 1959) on a tiny estate of
23 houses round a very pleasant communal green. It is ten
minutes’ walk to the station and couldn’t be
handier, although I am rapidly running out of space for my
books, CDs and pictures!